


Waterline

by kuro



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Don't copy to another site, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 13:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18852220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro/pseuds/kuro
Summary: Earth was destroyed by the last incursion, and then it was restored.Everything is the same, except that it's not.And Steve and Tony are still not talking to each other.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sinking](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18849901) by [dirigibleplumbing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirigibleplumbing/pseuds/dirigibleplumbing). 



> This is my fic for Captain America/Iron Man Reverse Bang 2019, inspired by dirigibleplumbing's lovely image! (Please take a look at it.) 
> 
> I'm quite nervous about this fic, because it's quite different from anything else I've written so far, I feel. I hope you enjoy it!

> **_New York City, Stark Tower_ **
> 
> **_May 24 th, 11.00pm_ **

****

The view out of the floor-length windows, onto the glittering skyline of the city at night, was always breath-taking.

Tony stood in front of the windows more and more often recently, watching as the individual specks of light shimmered in the dark, trying to understand how all this had been destroyed not too long ago. Earth itself had been gone, torn to pieces, and Tony had died with it. Standing in front of the window, looking outside, that knowledge felt unreal. It seemed impossible. Every part of the city was full of live and activity, and to think that somehow, it all had miraculously returned from complete and utter destruction seemed no more than the strange delusions of a madman.

It had happened, however, just as he had predicted. The incursions had happened exactly as he had predicted them, and he hadn’t been able to stop any of them. No one had been able to stop them from happening.

And that was the crux of the matter: the events during the incursions. He knew that the destruction of the Earth had happened, but it was knowledge gained from a schoolbook – impersonal and abbreviated, told by someone else. He hazily remembered a few things, ripped out of context, but when it came to the details, there was absolutely nothing.

It was as if someone had wiped his memory. And it was not just his own personal memory; all of his data had suffered the same fate. He was barely able to recover anything that he must have been working on during the incursions. Something had happened to him then, and whatever it was, all memory of it was now gone. And with it, all of his data was lost too.

He had tried to coax something, _anything_ , out of his machines – for many years now, he had been recording and storing immense amounts of data. Data that would to enable him to predict future threats, finetune the Avengers and their equipment, improve his own suits on the basis of all the formerly noted weaknesses; it had many uses, some of them unpredicted. He recorded so many things, sometimes storing them in places no one else would ever get access to, precisely because he knew how easily such things tended to disappear, were altered or manipulated, or even stolen. The recordings just before the last incursion, however, were nowhere to be found. And while Tony knew that something strange had happened to him then, had heard about it from others, it seemed impossible for him to just stop doing working on the data, to stop caring about something he had been putting years and years of work and effort into. That, more than anything, more than his own broken memory, made him worry.

(It was, after all, not the first time that he had _forgotten_ things.)

Had it been him? Or had it been something else?

He had found one corrupted data file, dated to the day of the last incursion, and he had been working on retrieving it for many days already – to no avail. The file remained corrupted, and Tony’s memory of the past remained hazy.

It was strange, then, that despite his otherwise unreliable memory, he remembered some things with brilliant clarity.

One of these ‘things’ was Miles Morales. The Spider-Man that had come from a different dimension, the Spider-Man who was now a part of their own.

Tony wasn’t sure if it would turn out to be a good thing for Miles, to come here, of all places. He hoped it would be, but it also worried him. He was so young, and yet he had already had to face more than many a seasoned superhero. 

As if by command, two sets of limbs attached themselves to the window in front of him with a thump, and Tony was looking at two Spider-Men gazing in, one in blue and the other in black, before they turned and crawled over to an entrance to let themselves in.

Tony smiled at them as they came to join him, watching them slipping off their masks. Both of them looked sweaty, but also energetic and happy.

“How’s the new suit?” Tony asked.

“It’s so cool,” Miles exclaimed, twirling around and touching the fabric of his suit. “It’s like, so light, but the padding is somehow so much better than my old one?”

“You wouldn’t need the padding if you didn’t get thrown into windows constantly,” Peter teased with a grin.

Miles grimaced. “I really don’t want to be told that by _you_. There are videos on youtube, and they are _not_ a good look. Don’t think I haven’t found them.”

“Oh, shut up,” Peter replied, elbowing Miles.

Tony noticed that Peter’s ears were turning slightly pink. It had always been one of Peter’s sore spots, he thought to himself, the fact that he was not really a ‘cool’ guy, but rather an awkward, geeky one. And now that he was looking after Miles, a boy that was _definitely_ looking up to him, he wanted to live up to the person that he was in Miles’ eyes.

It wasn’t like Tony didn’t understand the impulse.

“Let’s go to my lab and take some more measurements,” he said out aloud. “I want to take a look at the suits after you’ve taken them through their paces.”

Miles’ eyes lit up – he hadn’t gotten over the excitement of a futuristic lab yet – and bounced ahead.

It was a testament to how much Peter had grown up that he fell in step with Tony and didn’t follow Miles’ example. Once upon a time, that boy bouncing ahead would have been Peter. He too had been far too young then.

“How is he holding up?” Tony asked.

“Good,” Peter said. “Really good, considering… he still has all the memories of that other place. Sometimes—did you know I died there? He watched me die. That’s how he became Spider-Man.”

Tony swallowed an answer. It was something he could all too easily imagine – Peter dead, and Miles accepting the responsibility of being Spider-Man, as if a high schooler had any business routinely facing down hardened criminals and super villains. As if it was their personal burden to shoulder.

“I can’t quite believe that Molecule Man would do him such an enormous favour for a mouldy hamburger,” he said.

Peter chuckled. “Only Spider-Man, right?”

Tony smiled back. “Only Spider-Man.”

They arrived at the entrance of the lab, and when Tony unlocked the door, Miles swung into the air, flying through the lab once before he gracefully landed on the platform, ready for Tony to start with his analysis. Tony wouldn’t give up his suits for any reason, but the natural, fluid way in which Miles and Peter flew through the air made him a little envious from time to time. Compared to their unselfconscious grace, his own body was hardly comparable. And when he had been their age, even less so.

With a short command, his machines awoke from their slumber, blinking at Tony in expectation of further commands. This moment, he had always loved. Him and his machines, working in tandem.

“Can you hold out your hands like that?” Tony asked Miles, showing him the desired pose before he proceeded to select the proper settings for the analysis. “Yes, perfect. Stay like that for a moment.”

A short silence descended on the lab, only the machines whirring busily as they did their work. But when Tony finally looked up from the screen he had been checking the progress of the program on, he saw that Peter hadn’t been looking at the screen. He had been watching _him_.

“Have you, uh, talked to Steve?” Peter asked, shuffling his feet.

“No,” Tony replied slowly. “He hasn’t really come here… ever since.”

“Oh.”

Peter was quiet for a moment.

“Have you been leaving the tower at all?”

Tony hesitated. “I haven’t really, no.”

“Are you going to talk to him?”

In lieu of answering, Tony turned back towards the screen, watching the status of the analysis.

“Tony, will you?”

Tony sighed. “I don’t think so. I wouldn’t know what to talk about, really. I hardly remember anything that happened before the last incursion.”

“Like… how you died?”

“I don’t remember that at all,” Tony confessed. “Although I’ve heard a few things about it. But how can I possibly talk about something I don’t remember? How am I supposed to apologize?”

“I don’t know if an apology will cut it, this time,” Peter mused, shrugging almost helplessly.

Tony noticed that Peter’s hands shook lightly. He had always been terrible with any kind of conflict between team members.

“See?” Tony said, smiling at Peter. “It’s better if we let it rest for a little longer. In the meantime, there are enough other things I need to take care of.”

The machine beeped, and Tony turned towards Miles.

“Thank you, you can come down,” he said. “Peter, it’s your turn now.”

Peter jumped on the platform just as gracefully as Miles, and Miles joined Tony at his screen, watching the data scrolling by with interest.

“Now lift your arms, Peter. Perfect, stay like that.”


	2. Chapter 2

> **_S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters_ **
> 
> **_May 22nd, 2.00pm_ **

****

“Steve.”

Steve turned around, and saw Carol standing in the hallway, in her full Captain Marvel regalia.

“Carol,” he greeted. “I didn’t realise you were here. How are you?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” Carol replied, coming closer. “I also just arrived, so no worries. I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

When she stood in front of him, she looked up at him silently for one moment, her expression considering.

She looked good, Steve noticed. Well, she always looked good. But ever since she had graduated from her Miss Marvel moniker, there was a… _rightness_ about her.

“Have you talked to Tony yet?”

Steve’s answer was immediate and to the point. “No.”

Carol sighed. “You two never learn, do you.”

“What should we talk about, Carol?” Steve asked, irritated. “That he lied to me time and again, that he erased my memory? That he saw me as the enemy? That he acted beyond any measure of morality?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Carol shot back. “And maybe you should also ask him why he felt like he had to lie to you in the first place.”

They both lapsed into silence for a moment, glaring at each other.

Carol sighed again and rubbed her eyes, as if she was very tired of it all. She probably was, Steve assumed.

“Seriously, Steve, you two need to talk to each other, if not for your own sake, then for the sake of the Avengers. I’m not trying to force you. Just… think about it.”

Steve opened his mouth to answer, not sure what he was going to say, but before he could make a sound, he felt a hand descend on his shoulder. When he turned his head, Jamie was standing at his side, smiling at him.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you two, but we’re going to be late for the briefing.”

It wasn’t a particularly elegant save, but it was true. The briefing would start any moment now, and considering that Steve was the leader of the planned mission, he could hardly skip it, or be late.

He turned towards Carol, perhaps feeling less apologetic than he ought to.

“Sorry, Carol, I need to go. It was good seeing you again,” he said, and gave her a hug that she returned with crushing strength.

“Promise me you’ll think about it,” she whispered into his ear.

“I will,” he replied, squeezing her before letting her go.

Carol stepped back to say good-bye to Jaime, but it was distinctly less cordial than the greeting she had given Steve, hardly more than a wave and a ‘bye.’

It was to be expected, Steve supposed. She had always been much closer to Tony and him, even though they did not always see eye to eye. It was justified, in way, that Carol insisted on taking Tony’s side, considering he had always stood by her side in her darkest moments. That, however, did not make it any easier to even think about forgiving Tony for what he had done.

“I don’t really see why she’s so insistent that you and Tony should talk, if I’m honest,” Jaime said as he fell into step with Steve, heading towards the briefing room. “You made your choices, and he made his. I don’t see how he’s supposed to fix that.”

“I don’t want to talk about Tony right now,” Steve said, perhaps a little more sharply than he should have. His temper was short today; he’d spent another night twisting and turning in his bed, haunted by strange visions of things that had never been. The dreams had been coming more and more often lately, and a strange number of them featured Tony in them. And now, Tony had apparently also begun to haunt his days, giving him no reprieve.

It was a mystery to him, to have such intimate dreams about a person that… maybe it had been too long since his last girlfriend. Steve knew very well that he wasn’t a particularly physically affectionate person by nature, so why he would be dreaming of Tony’s… physical closeness in particular, he didn’t know.

“I know,” Jaime said, placating, and Steve snapped out of his thoughts, returning to the conversation and to their current location. They had reached the meeting room. “And I’m sorry. I just wanted to tell you that despite apparently everyone else’s opinion, it’s fine if you don’t do it, as long as you’re not ready for it. Don’t stress yourself.”

“Thank you, Jaime,” Steve replied, with a bit of relief, and Jaime smiled at him.

“At your service, Captain,” he said, slapped Steve on the arm lightly, and went ahead to take his seat.

Steve also found his own seat, right next to Clint, who was looking after Jaime.

“Hello Clint,” Steve said. “You seem well. How is Kate?”

Clint grinned proudly. “She’s excellent, kicking ass and taking names as per usual.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Different topic, though,” Clint said, his eyes wandering between Steve and Jaime, who had sat down a little farther away, just out of earshot. “You know, sometimes I almost feel like you have a type. Don’t you think Tony and Jaime look pretty similar? Maybe I should grow a goatee too, and then you’ll like me better.”

Tony again. Steve suppressed a sigh. It seemed like he could not escape that topic today.

“It’s pure coincidence,” he replied, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice this time. “I didn’t even know what Tony looked like when I joined the Avengers. He was always in his tin can. No one knew how Iron Man looked for the longest time. And well, we’re ‘work friends.’” He made ironic air quotes. “Jaime was the one who helped me adapt to civilian life in the future. We met under completely different circumstances, and the fact that they look somewhat alike is pure coincidence.”

Clint looked doubtful, but then he shook his head and grinned. “If you say so… I guess that’s a ‘no’ to the goatee?”

“That’s a ‘no’ to the goatee, Clint.”

“Oh shut up, you know I’d look so good in it. Afraid I’ll become too attractive?”

“If you two would be so kind to pay attention to the briefing,” Maria Hill’s stern voice interrupted their banter, the woman herself staring them down mercilessly from the front of the room. “Or do you need a personal invitation?”

“Sorry,” Clint mumbled, and looked appropriately chastised, straightening up (although not for very long, Steve assumed).

Jaime caught Steve’s eye and grinned at him sarcastically, as if to say ‘There we go again, the shining beacon of justice and heroism misbehaving once again’ before he turned back towards to the front of the room, listening attentively.

Steve too turned his attention towards Maria Hill’s explanation of the mission plan, although his efforts were somewhat more half-heartedly. He wondered why everyone seemed to be obsessing over his relationship with Tony Stark. They had stood on opposite sides of a conflict more and more often lately. They had clashed, and fought to each other to their deaths in the last conflict. Any relationship they might have had, as part of the original Avengers, and as mentors to a younger generation of Avengers, was long gone.

At this point, Tony might be a liability more than anything else. Why Steve should try to mend that relationship was honestly beyond him.

If only it wasn’t for the dreams that haunted him every night. Dreams that framed their relationship differently, and that made Steve wake up panting in his pillow, frustrated and, somehow, yearning.

But that was a secret that would never see the light of day if he could help it.


	3. Chapter 3

> **_New York City, Stark Tower_ **
> 
> **_May 25th, 12.00am_ **

****

Tony took notes on which parts of the new Spider-Man suits would still need to be adapted and improved, and then he sent Miles and Peter on their way. He watched them leave the lab, already off in their own little world. It was easy to see for anyone with the slightest understanding: these were two people that were very different, and yet remarkably similar. It struck him again every time he saw them together. Miles, he felt, had made the right choice at least in one regard: he wasn’t all on his own now.

When Tony was sure they were gone, he closed the data for the suits and once again called up the corrupted file on the closest screen, staring at it. He had a feeling that he would inevitably fail to retrieve the data once again, but he could not rest. The taunt of any clue that might help him solve the puzzle he was faced with would not let him rest until he had tried every last trick in the book.

It wasn’t just Miles. Miles was fine, benign, and Tony knew that his appearance in this universe had been Molecule Man’s doing. Miles’ appearance certainly changed things, but his existence here was, all things considered, a very small ripple in a very large pond. No, what worried him were the bigger waves that should not be there at all. Waves that Molecule Man’s interference could not account for.

Even with a significant part of his data lost and his memory impaired, things did not add up. There were events, people, things that he noticed that should not be there at all, and others that should be there that were gone. It wasn’t him going insane, he knew that. It was the first thing he had checked: if his brain was still working right. But all had been fine. Still, something had been wrong ever since Earth had returned from its destruction, and Tony couldn’t figure out the cause. All he knew was what the numbers told him, and the numbers did not lie. And until he figured out where the problem was buried, he could not leave.

This time, they had escaped annihilation by essentially pulling a saviour out of their asses. And despite Tony’s best efforts, he had been unable to stop the incursions. He would not, could not be responsible for another destruction of their world.

One of the screens nearby beeped, drawing his attention back to reality. A message had popped up on the screen.

_I need to talk to you_ , it read. _Meet me here._

It was followed by a set of coordinates.

Steve.

_We can talk,_ he wrote back. _But I’m working on an important project. Can you come to my lab?_

_Honestly, I’d rather not_ , was the answer.

Fair enough, Tony figured. Steve was probably trying to avoid entering the lion’s den at all costs. Tony still didn’t know what had happened between them just before his death, but he knew that Steve had been the one who had been there with him at the time. And not as comrades, but as enemies. What exactly had happened however – it couldn’t have been good. Not with the way Steve had been acting ever since, maintaining absolute radio silence. And Steve was the only one who knew what had happened.

So if Steve was finally willing to talk, Tony was ready to listen.

_Okay_ , he typed back, _I’ll come. Give me fifteen minutes._

_See you there._

The message blinked up, and Tony put the file analysis on his other screen on standby, turning away from his desk to suit up. He had a meeting to get to.

*

> **_New York, Fire Island_ **
> 
> **_May 25th, 12.20 am_ **

 

When Tony arrived, he scanned the surrounding area, the low bushes and the stretch of silvery beach, but he could detect no other life than the resident wildlife. Steve was not yet there, then, which surprised him somewhat. But he could wait. He landed close to the waterside and opened the helmet, the HUD display retracting to a view of the midnight sea. It was calm weather, with small waves gently washing onto the beach; a quiet, rhythmic sound.

He realised just how long it had been since he had last been outside. The wind on his skin felt good, calming. It was peaceful out here.

Before long, a crunching sound came from behind him, and Tony let the helmet fall closed as he turned. There, in the shifting darkness, stood not the person he was waiting for.

“…Jaime,” Tony said at last.

Jaime gave him a faint smile.

“I’m afraid the person you’re waiting for will not be coming today,” he announced.

“You—”

Jaime held up his hands as Tony took an involuntary step towards him.

“Steve doesn’t actually know we’re here. The person who called you here,” here Jaime paused deliberately, “was me.”

“There’s no need to pretend you’re Steve if you want to talk to me.”

Jaime laughed lightly.

“Oh, there is.”

He waved the issued aside, as if it had been a perfectly logical thing to do.

“In any case, I called you out today. Because frankly, you are a constant nuisance that I can’t get rid of for some reason. So I brought you here. To get rid of you.”

“Jaime, what—”

“Nothing you need to know, Tony,” Jaime interrupted him. Something in his eyes glimmered dangerously. “Always sticking your nose into things that don’t concern you. Just know that you can’t win against me.”

And with that, he pressed the button of a small device he had been hiding so far, and with a small klick, a portal opened right where Tony stood.

Tony didn’t even have time to take a breath or say anything. He was unceremoniously sucked through the portal, dragged through as if he was a ragdoll. He could see Jaime’s dark eyes faintly glimmer, then the world turned blinding white.

The last rays of a golden sunset reflected from his armour – that couldn’t be right, it had just been night – as he plummeted towards the sea beneath him. As he hit the surface of the water, his display blared to life with warning signs. It informed him that the liquid he had just fallen into was not water at all. Not water. And its temperature was frighteningly close to absolute zero.

Something cracked.

It was not the kind of sound Tony liked to hear, especially when it came from his armour, while he was wearing it.

As his display went wild, he tried to figure out what just happened. What had Jaime done? Where would he find an ocean that froze anything without protection in seconds? How had he–

Oh, curse it all. 

If he didn’t get out here, and fast, something had to give. And Tony had the bad feeling that it would be him.


	4. Chapter 4

> **_S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters_ **
> 
> **_May 25th, 2.00pm_ **

 

The mission had been a success. As Steve walked though the hallways of the headquarter, he went over a mental list of feedback he was planning to give to all team members later. The team work could definitely still be improved, but the newer recruits were learning quickly and doing well.

And he, well, he was doing well on his own. Despite his dreams.

When he reached the end of the hallway, he found two figures waiting for him that he hadn’t been expecting to meet here. Peter was there, along with that new boy, Miles, both in their Spider-Man suits, but with their masks off. They seemed to be mirroring each other. Both were looking at him with the same serious expression, and it struck Steve just how similar they were. He wondered if it had something to do with them both being Spider-Man. Or if both had already been like that before they had ever donned the costume.

“Peter,” he said, surprised. “What brings you here?”

“Where is Tony?” Peter asked, in a complete non-sequitur.

“Where is Tony?” Steve repeated slowly. “How should I know? Isn’t he at his tower? I haven’t seen him in months.”

Tony, again. Every last person he knew seemed to be determined to bring that name up with him lately. Now people were going out of their way to bring Tony up with him. It was getting harder not to snap. Tony and he had cut their professional ties, and that was that. There was nothing worth to be salvaged there.

Peter wrinkled his brow, and Miles expression followed a moment later.

“You haven’t seen him?” Peter asked. “You’ve met up just yesterday!”

“No, we really haven’t,” Steve denied. “Why would I even _want_ to meet him?”

“You messaged him yesterday!” Peter exclaimed. He waved his hands for emphasis.

“No, I did not!”

He noticed Miles’ suddenly nervous shift back and realised that he’d unconsciously raised his voice to a considerable shout.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, rubbing his nose. “But I really have neither spoken to nor met up with him. That much is true.”

“But you’ve tried to contact him! And now he’s vanished into thin air!”

“Peter,” Steve repeated. “I haven’t spoken to Tony in _months_. There’s no good reason why I would try to contact him.”

“But the protocols show it was you!” Miles piped up.

His eager expression quickly turned nervous again when Steve turned towards him.

“I can guarantee you that I never even tried to contact him,” he pressed out, emphasising every word. “I did not try to get into contact with Tony in any way, shape, or form.”

He saw the corner of Peter’s mouth twitch for a second, but his expression quickly grew serious again.

“Well, all we know is that he’s been unavailable and untraceable ever since he was contacted to meet you… by whoever it was that contacted him,” he quickly backtracked when he saw Steve’s expression.

Steve eclipsed into silence for a moment. That was… if he was honest, that was worrying. Nothing good ever happened when Avengers suddenly went missing, and especially someone like Tony never really went off the radar. It was kind of his _thing_ , to be reachable at any time and by any means. He was the man who’d turned his own brain into a computer at some point, for god’s sake.  

He sighed. Whatever his personal feelings on all Tony-related things, a disappearance was something he could not ignore. Carol would be happy. Now he had ample reason to try to talk to Tony.

“Do you have any kind of information about his last confirmed location?” he asked Peter.

“There were some coordinates, for the meeting with you,” Peter said. “We already checked that out though. No clues there, just a random spot on Fire Island.”

Steve’s brow wrinkled. That was a strange place to meet up. He had been supposed to meet Tony there?

“Let’s give that place a second look,” he announced. Both Peter and Miles immediately perked up.

“We’ll take one of the jets.”

*

> **_New York, Fire Island_ **
> 
> **_May 25th, 3.00pm_ **

 

It had struck Steve as odd before already, but now, after they had arrived at the spot indicated by the coordinates, it made even less sense. Why would he want to meet Tony here, of all places? The place was strange in the sense was that it was utterly unremarkable. No building stood close-by, the deserted road hidden by the meagre undergrowth on the island a little ways away. All that was here was an empty beach, and then the sea.

The weather was calm today, and lazy waves lapped at the shore as Steve stood there and looked around. Nothing indicated that Tony, or anyone else, had been here yesterday.

“Shit,” Steve said out loud. “Seriously, Tony should have known better. Why would I ever ask him to meet up in a place like this?”

Peter sent him a sideways glance.

“You’ve never done that?”

“No. We’ve only ever met up in the tower, the mansion, the helicarrier, places like that.”

Peter hummed noncommittally.

“And what do we do now?” Miles asked, from Steve’s other side.

“I’m not sure,” Steve replied, staring at the waves. They were hypnotising, and relaxing at the same time. “This seems like a dead end to me.”

They all lapsed into a worried silence.

As they stood there, the silence was suddenly broken by the sound of another small shuttle descending from the sky. After it had landed, Jaime hopped out, zeroing in on them.

“Steve,” he said by way of greeting. “I heard from Maria that they,” he pointed at Peter and Miles, “brought you here. What’s going on? Why would you be looking for Tony?”

“If an Avenger disappears, it’s an issue for all of us, Jaime.”

Jaime looked unconvinced. Honestly, it didn’t really come as a surprise to Steve. He knew that Jaime and Tony didn’t exactly get along great. But then, they also were all Avengers. Personal preferences aside, they had a job to do. And whether Steve liked the Avenger in question or was on speaking terms with them or not, he would investigate a sudden disappearance.

“He’s probably just holed up somewhere,” Jaime eventually said, shrugging it off.

“But he’s promised to give us our new suits!” Miles exclaimed.

“And he’s never not delivered a promise on time,” Peter added. “He might get lost in his work sometimes, but he’s never missed a meeting with one of us because of it. That’s not Tony.”

Steve saw Jaime roll his eyes.

“I will never understand how all of you can be so obsessed with Tony Stark.”


	5. Chapter 5

> **_Unknown Location_ **
> 
> **_Unknown date, unknown time_ **

 

Tony’s suit was built to survive a lot of things: the hostile environment of space, the cold, heat, poisonous gas, all manners of physical attacks, electric damage, even Magneto. It was, however, fallible like all other things invented by any being in the universe. Once enough stress was added to it, it would break eventually. It was just a question of where exactly the breaking point was.

Unfortunately, he was worryingly close to that breaking point right now. Submerged in a fluid that was slowly corroding the plates of his suit, he would freeze to death as soon as there was a leak. He would not survive contact with liquid that was this close to absolute zero.

But he refused to have the last thing he was going to see before he died be the blaring warnings on his HUD. He’d never been the person to just submit and take anything lying down. He’d faced worse, and come out on top.

Without hesitation, he shut off the warning system, and all the warnings on his display disappeared, leaving behind only eerie silence. Then he started to redirect all systems to get him enough thrust to at least het him out of the freezing sea. It was something he really shouldn’t do, because it would break his suit more likely than not, especially now that it was already cracked. But it wasn’t like he was in a position to care about that right now; he could either try it or die. There was nobody coming to save him now, and if he didn’t do something, he was doomed.

He’d become good at achieving the impossible. Most of the time.

He shut off the suit, and restarted it. Everything went dark, and all that surrounded him was the ominous crackle of the unknown sea surrounding him, pressing in on him.

Then the HUD blared to life, and Tony nearly lost consciousness from the sudden pressure on his body. Then he was thrown around, losing his sense of direction due to the vertigo. His entire suit shook terribly, and for a moment, Tony thought that that was it. The suit was going to break, and he was going to die. But then the display cleared, and he realised he floated in a dark night sky, the black sea gently waving below his feet.

He’d made it out.

He allowed himself a small sigh of relief, as well as a moment of recovery from the ordeal, before he readjusted the suit’s controls and checked his environment. The air was barely warmer than the sea, and inhospitable for human lungs. If he didn’t have the suit, he would have died two minutes after the fall through the portal. As it was, the atmosphere was just good enough for his suit to filter out and produce breathable air.

How lucky he was.

He rose a little higher over the sea level, looking around. As he did, he turned on night vision and a proximity scanner, in hopes to find out where he was, but to no avail. He was surrounded by an endless black sea, and not a single island or distant shoreline was in sight.

He tried to send out a message into the vast universe, in hopes to find out where he was, because whatever this place was, it wasn’t Earth. Temperatures like these were impossible on Earth. He also tried to send out an emergency signal, in the hopes that someone was close buy that could pick him up, but any message he tried to send pinged back before it even breached the atmosphere. He tired again, on different frequencies, but something blocked the signal from going through.

He was utterly, terribly fucked.

He’d landed on a planet that was trying to kill him, and he couldn’t even send off an emergency message. He had no idea where he was, or _when_ he was.

After testing the limits of the suit and rising a little higher, he gave up with a bitter taste in his mouth. He wasn’t sure his armour would still withstand the escape velocity needed to escape the gravity here. Most likely, it would not. He would probably burn to death if he tried. He wasn’t sure if that was preferable to freezing to death.

With no better option available, he lowered his altitude again and then set out in one random direction, hoping to eventually find land, a portal, _anything_.

Anything to find his way back. He had a bone to pick with Jaime, after all.

*

> **_Unknown Location_ **
> 
> **_Unknown date, unknown time_ **

 

Tony had been flying for many hours now, and he was starting to feel despair. There was absolutely _nothing_ on this planet, only a hostile sea stretching out endlessly beneath him. No land in sight anywhere. Jaime, the fucker, had sent him on a death planet. How had he even been able to open a portal like that? And all without the contraptions that Reed generally used. It had been such a small device that Tony hadn’t even noticed it until it had already been activated.

What was Jaime’s plan, he wondered. He couldn’t be up to anything good. He had to find a way to warn Steve. Or anyone he could get a hold of.

Maybe he should have installed that emergency distress signal and tracker that Rhodey had suggested to him a while ago. But he had been too paranoid to entertain the notion then. At least there would be a chance then that his body would be found eventually. Right now, he might be as well a needle in a haystack of truly gargantuan proportions. He still had no idea where in the vast universe he was.

He was ejected from his dark thoughts by the sight of something floating in the ocean that appeared to be more than just another big wave. For one, it seemed to be stationary. And shaped like an island. Heart beating against his ribs, he turned and flew towards it, lowering his height as he went.

As the silhouette became clearer, he nearly cried in relief and exhaustion. It really was a tiny island, no more than three hundred meters across. Small as it was, it was the most precious piece of land Tony had ever laid eyes on. And, he saw as he flew ever closer, there were traces of inhabitation on the island. Buildings.

Was someone still living in this impossible environment? Was _life_ possible in this hostile world?

He carefully approached, his sensors trying to pick up any sign of life, but all that eventually greeted him were cold, dark ruins utterly devoid of life and movement. Some of the buildings had been damaged, slowly crumbling to dust. But there was still enough of the structure left for Tony to guess what it must have been at some point in the past: it looked very much like a temple or a palace – or perhaps something in between. The sprawling, imposing buildings where certainly not used for normal inhabitation. The architecture was imposing, a representation of the power its builders had aspired to once upon a time.

He landed among the rubble on top of the large staircase leading up to the central building, taking in the grandness of it. The building was easily over thirty meters tall, but it seemed to be single-storied. Writing in a foreign script he had never seen before had been carved into the stone above the now gaping entrance, once upon a time guarded by a massive set of doors that now lay broken on the ground. He could still make out carved decorations of what seemed to be alien plants on the crumbling wings of the doors.

He walked through the imposing gate, into the temple or palace or whatever it was, and what he found there was – well, fascinating.

It took him a while to start deciphering the carvings on the walls, but it seemed to be the story of the people who once inhabited this planet. And the story that the images told was quite different from what he had seen with his own eyes: a planet teeming with life, full of animals and plants and everything in between. Tales of what seemed gods and heroes and other figures whose supposed role Tony couldn’t figure out. It all seemed to be the very tale of everlasting bliss, until in one panel, disaster had struck.

And, if he read the story right, the disaster had been self-made, caused by the hubris of whatever equalled mankind here. They had stripped and exploited their own planet of all they could, until the sea had risen and the atmosphere had turned toxic, until all life on the planet was either dead or had escaped, fled to a better place. Tony wondered just what they had done to their planet to turn it into a frozen wasteland, a hostile environment that could not support any form of life. Here, the narrative seemed to stop, and surface that followed the last carvings was empty. The story had ended before its time.

Tony shuddered a little. The tale etched into the walls of this buildings seemed a little too personal for his comfort. The destruction of a planet…

He turned away.

Leaving the carvings behind, he wandered further into the temple, through empty halls, past broken doors and fallen ceilings, and through a long, winding hallway. Hardly anything remained from the days when this place had still been in use, no relics telling more stories about the people who had once inhabited this place. Every corner he turned, he was just greeted by more bare walls with crumbling corners. But as he reached the last chamber, at the very end of the hall way – oh my.


	6. Chapter 6

> **_New York, Fire Island_ **
> 
> **_May 25th, 3.25pm_ **

 

Steve felt exhausted. He didn’t want to fight with Jaime, but Jaime blocked him at every turn, trying to make him give up on his search for Tony.

“Seriously, Steve, what do you gain from it?” Jaime asked. “A short while ago, you were perfectly willing to kill him.”

Miles gasped audibly, and a heavy silence descended onto the four of them. Not a single person had dared to mention the elephant in the room ever since it had been standing there after the incursions – not even Carol, who usually had little issue to hit him where it hurt.

“I’m not going to apologise,” Jaime said, defiantly sticking out his chin. “You know I’m right.”

Steve’s hand suddenly, intensely itched for his shield.

Shocked by his own impulse, he balled his hands into fists. Why would he want to–  

“I’m not going to discuss this here, Jaime,” he replied coldly.

“Oh, and when are you going to? You’ve been avoiding the issue for _months_. Tony is a danger.”

“He was trying to protect his people.”

Those were Miles’ words.

Jaime immediately zeroed in on Miles, who shrank back as he realised he had now become the centre of attention.

“Oh, now you’re taking his side?” Jamie growled. “It was _your_ world that he was trying to destroy.”

“And what were you doing while it was happening?” Miles shot back, although he looked shaken by Jamie’s words.

In that moment, there was a bright flash, and Iron Man himself appeared out of thin air, descending from the sky like some sort of avenging angel. Steve noticed, almost absent-mindedly, that the suit looked beaten up and partly broken. Just as if he had been in some kind of altercation.

“That’s a good question, Jaime,” came Tony’s voice through the loudspeaker. “What _were_ you doing?”

“Tony!” Miles and Peter exclaimed simultaneously.

Jamie, however, jerked back as if he’d been hit. He didn’t answer.

Steve looked from Jaime to Iron Man and back, trying to understand what was happening even as an unaccounted-for sense of relief washed over him. Tony was safe. He was safe.

Steve’s duty was over.

“You know, Jaime,” Tony said, still hovering above them. “I can understand wanting to seek refuge somewhere safe as much as the next guy. But turning to invasion and domination? Never a good look.”

Steve frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Tony ignored Steve’s words, still fixing Jaime with the cold glare of Iron Man’s mask.

“Where are your co-conspirators? Everywhere, I presume, and in the most crucial positions. How many of you are there exactly?”

“You think you can stop us?” Jaime spat, glaring up at Tony with pure venom in his eyes. “You’ll fail.”

“So unjustifiably confident,” Tony replied. “The failing of both of our kinds, it seems.”

He slowly rose from the sky, until he hovered just slightly above their heads.

“Unfortunately, confidence is entirely justified in my case.”

Jaime huffed in disgust.

“Tall words from a dead man.”

“Not at all,” Tony replied. “Since you were foolish enough to leave behind all your data.”

Jaime paled, shocked in a way Steve had never seen him before. “Did you–“

“I found your little hide-away, yes. Were you hoping to return there one day? That planet will never be hospitable again.”

Jaime’s eyes flamed. “You know nothing. And this is a battle you will lose.”

Jaime reached for his pocket. Before Steve even knew what he was doing, he had reached for his shield and knocked Jaime out cold.

A small device fell into the sand.

Steve took a deep breath.

“Would anyone care to explain to me what the hell is going on?”

He’d asked for ‘anyone’, but he was still looking at Tony.

“Just your average hostile alien takeover.”

Tony finally landed on the ground, his helmet visor retreating. He sounded strangely relaxed for someone announcing an alien invasion.

“Thank you, by the way. My suit wouldn’t have withstood another bath in that ocean.”

Steve didn’t reply. For a moment, the two of them just stared at each other, silently.

“Steve,” Tony said, eventually.

“Tony,” Steve replied, as if that name meant something. To him.

“Can you explain to me why I just knocked out my best friend?”

“He’s not your best friend. Your best friend is Bucky Barnes.”

Steve felt his brows knit together. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Tony hesitated for a moment, looking at Steve as if he was searching for something.

“You only think Jaime is your best friend. It’s an illusion. A false memory. Your best friend has always been Bucky. Jaime is just… a spy. An agent. Trying to take over the Earth with his alien spy buddies.”

“That-“

Tony sighed.

“Look, Steve, I know I’m the last person you want to trust right now. I’m probably the last person you want to see, whether now nor in the future. But right now, this is neither about you, or me, or anything that has happened between the two of us. You might never be willing to talk to me as a friend again. Right now, that doesn’t matter. This is about the fact that our memories have been tampered with, all in order to facilitate an alien takeover of Earth’s resources, and Jamie over there is unfortunately a part of it. He sent me to his home planet in order to have me killed. I survived and took all of the data they stored there. I can prove to you that I’m saying the truth.”

“Do you remember how many times you lied to me?”

Tony fell silent.

Steve glared at him, daring him to answer his question.

It was Peter that pushed in between the two of them, interrupting their stare-off.

“Steve might be on the fence, but Miles and I believe you,” Peter said Tony. “And I’m sure Carol and Rhodey will do, too. So tell us what we can do. You, uh, I assume you have, like, a plan?”

He trailed off at the end, suddenly sounding unsure.

“I do,” Tony said, pressing a hidden button on the surface of his suit, and a hologram appeared with a list, written in a foreign script. “This is, I think, a list of agents. All we have to do is decipher the names on this list, find their whereabouts, and then take them all down. Really quite simple, all things considered.”

Peter stared at the list, still scrolling on, with despair.

“This is going to be _so much work_ ,” he mumbled. “How many damn spies can they have?”

“We could always ask Peter Quill for help. I’m sure he’s willing, and the probability that he’s been compromised in any way is very low.”

“Peter Quill? Starlord?” Miles asked.

“Yes,” Tony answered. “He’s been a big help to me before. And these aliens, they don’t impersonate people like the Skrulls. They just alter memories to fit themselves inside them, as far as I could figure it out.”

That stung, somehow. It was as if they’d already given up on Steve, as if they’d forgotten that he was standing right here, next to them. As if he didn’t need some time to process all that had happened in the course of a few minutes.

And Tony wanted to ask _Peter Quill._

He looked down at Jaime, who laid there, still unconscious. His best friend. The person who had helped him get used to the future. The person who had been his pillar of support. And the person who had worked his hardest at keeping him and Tony apart. Why? Because of what happened during the incursions? Because the relationship between him and Tony had always been wrought with personal conflict?

He looked at Jaime and thought about what Tony had said – that his best friend had always been Bucky Barnes. Why would he possibly trade Bucky for Jaime? That made no sense. If anything, Jaime looked much more like Tony than Bucky in every way. In fact – but none of it made any sense. None of it. Bucky and he had been in the military together. He’d thought Bucky had died. He’d been so lonely in the future. And then, there had been this one person. This one person… he remembered waking up in the middle of the night, panting into his pillow with a yearning, a desire that would forever remain unfulfilled. It had been a lie he had learned to tell early. _My friend._

That–

it–

he felt a blackness creep up in the corners of his eyes, but before he could say another thing, it had consumed him.

*

> **_New York, Fire Island_ **
> 
> **_May 25th, 3.40pm_ **

 

When Steve woke up, it was to Tony’s worried face leaning over him.

“Christ, Steve,” Tony sighed as he became aware that Steve had regained consciousness. “You shocked us. I’ve never seen you go out like that. You went as white as a sheet and then just collapsed without as much as a whimper.”

Steve privately thought that the one who looked as white as a sheet was Tony himself.

Then he remembered. Oh yes, he remembered all of it. Too much of it, really.

And he lifted his fist and punched Tony in the face, because he could.

“What the fuck?” Peter screamed, grabbing his arm and immobilizing it.

“I still fucking hate you,” Steve mumbled, not taking his eyes off Tony.

“Fair enough,” Tony said, rubbing his nose in pain. “I know you’re angry.”

Steve studied Tony. His handsome face, bruising quickly, the armour, cracked and abused.

He really didn’t understand why he loved this man this much. Had always loved him this much, to the point that it drove him insane.

That didn’t mean, unfortunately, that he hadn’t been right for once. He remembered now.

“I remember now,” he said out loud.

Tony looked somehow relieved, but also conflicted.

“Uh, guys,” Miles said, redirecting Steve’s gaze. “I think we have a problem.”

For a moment, Steve wasn’t sure what Miles was referring to. He had recovered, after all.

Then it dawned on him: they were one man short.

Jaime was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

> **_In the Quinjet, above New York City_ **
> 
> **_May 25th, 4.00pm_ **

 

Somewhat reluctantly, Tony acknowledged that, since they had no idea where Jaime had gone and what his next steps were, they were pressed for time. So he swallowed down the urge to tell the others at length about the portal he had been thrown into and the planet he had landed on, and stuck to the relevant bits. As best as he could, anyway.

(And there was absolutely no time to ponder the return of Steve’s memory. And what, exactly, he had remembered.)

He allowed himself to get a little more into detail as they sat in the quinjet, heading towards S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, after they had alerted the most trusted members of the Avengers to the emergency at hand. There was no way they could do this alone, and as long as they were travelling, not much could be done.

Not to mention that Tony’s suit kept malfunctioning and wouldn’t connect to his remote server, so he was unable to work on the list as long as he didn’t have a better device at hand. Aboard the quinjet, he finally stepped out of his broken suit, discarding it on the floor. He only kept the physical memory storage of the suit in possession. He could clean up the rest later on.

“They’re almost certainly more technologically advanced than we are,” he told his attentive audience, minus Steve.

Steve had taken over the cockpit of the jet and was doing his best impression of a grumpy old man.

“They became extremely adept at stripping the planet of every single resource they could possibly think of. Now the planet is just a cold globe with absolutely nothing on it. The temperature of the sea and air are both very close to absolute zero. The only solid surface still remaining seems to be the tiny island that I found. At some point, it must have been the top of a high mountain. Honestly, I have no idea how they achieved that. And on that little island, they built a supercomputer that somehow still works despite the hostile climate. It was fascinating. I’ll have to look into that at some point. And that computer that still sits on their home planet is what allows them to open portals and travel to different places. I felt tempted to shut it off when I had the chance, but it was my only way of returning here. I would have stranded myself there, and who knows what they were going to do then. Oh, and it seems they can also manipulate time to a certain extent. Plant false memories, that kind of thing. I couldn’t figure out how they do that, exactly. It seems to work more like an elfish glamour rather than like anything related to time travel.”

At that, Steve actually turned around for a moment and eyeballed Tony wordlessly. And without saying anything, he turned back towards the steering wheel when the controls beeped at him.

Tony had no idea what that had been about, but it left him slightly jittery.

“I think they used the reconstruction of our world as a springboard to implement some changes of their own. Not everything was reinstated exactly the same as it had been before the incursions – Miles’ existence in this universe would be one example – so it was easy for them to add more changes, if they did it at the right moment.”

He paused for one moment, considering.

“I think they have been watching us for a long time. And then reprogrammed the Earth like a computer simulation.”

“That… doesn’t sound freaky, at all,” Peter commented sarcastically.

“What will we do if they do the same thing all over again?” Miles asked, leaning closer to Tony in concern.

Tony felt sorry for the kid. He really shouldn’t have to worry about world-ending threats, or alien invasions, or anything like that.

“It will be fine,” Tony assured him. “They can’t change everything again on such quick notice. As I said, they have been watching us for a long time, and when they finally found their loophole, they implemented their changes. That needs a lot of preparation. We won’t give them that time now.”

“Okay,” Miles said, his voice still small. He looked like he wanted to believe Tony, but wasn’t sure if he could. Tony wished he could assure him with absolute confidence that they would be fine. But he knew better than that.

“Well, thanks to Jaime’s interference, we have one substantial advantage now,” he said, instead.

“That would be?” Peter asked, raising his eyebrow.

Tony’s smile was brittle. “Thanks to him, we have all of the Avengers fighting on the same side for the first time in a long while.”

With that, they all fell silent. Tony looked at Peter’s face and could him see remembering all the instances, even before the incursions, when Avengers had found themselves on opposing sides of a conflict. It had happened far too often lately, that they fought each other rather than anyone else.

In silence, they continued their journey to the headquarters. Only the motors hummed busily, trying to get them to their destination quickly as the sun inched closer to the horizon.

*

> **_S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters_ **
> 
> **_May 25th, 4.30pm_ **

 

Tony knew that this was not going to be some kind of epic, heroic battle. (It rarely ever was that, if Tony was honest.) They had a list that they had to work through like an accountant going through his numbers, and they had to do it fast enough that whatever Jaime might still have in store could not be executed before they had disposed of all the possible threats.

When their little group finally arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and they climbed out of the jet, a welcoming committee of Avengers was already waiting for them by the landing pad. They had sent a call of assembly out to all those that they had determined uncompromised, and invariably, they had responded to the call. All of them were there, ready to spring into action, as soon as they were given the green light.

Tony felt relieved. He trusted these people; but right until this moment, he hadn’t been sure if a call from Steve and him would have the same effect as it used to have.

Apparently, it still did.

With so many people involved, it wouldn’t take long for their spy list to be translated fully, as small groups divided up the list into manageable chunks and headed out to detain their assigned subjects.

Not a heroic battle, not at all. But it was only possible through team effort, and heroic or not, their duty was to protect the Earth. They would persevere.

Natasha intercepted him as walked towards one of the larger meeting rooms. She punched him lightly (but not as lightly as she could have), and gave him a judgemental look.

“Next time you notice something is off, you come to me first. Spying is _my_ business.”  

He apologised profusely, rubbing the place where she had punched him. It kind of hurt, and the message was pretty clear.

“I didn’t really expect an attack from _that_ side, if I’m honest.”

Natasha sighed deeply.

“Contact me next time,” she emphasised. “Even if you _don’t expect it_.”

Tony did not reply, but he gave her a smile.

Sometimes, the members of the Avengers were all terribly weird. And he wouldn’t know what to do without them.

The next to intercept him was Rhodey, already suited up in his War Machine suit. He definitely was a welcome sight, not just because he was Rhodey, but also because he was holding a very particular present for Tony.

“I hope it’s the right one,” he said to Tony, wrinkling his nose. “You could stand cleaning up that mess down there from time to time.”

“Sorry, I’ve been busy with too many other things lately,” Tony apologised. “But it’s the one I wanted, so thank you. You never get it wrong, anyway.”

Rhodey huffed in faux offence, but couldn’t keep the smile off his face for more than a moment. But then he glanced over to Steve, walking a few steps ahead of them, and his expression sobered.

“Are you going to be fine?” Rhodey asked, lowering his voice.

“I am, Rhodey, don’t worry.”

Tony wanted to add that he understood why Steve was angry, and that his anger was probably justified, but he also knew that wouldn’t go down well with Rhodey, so he remained silent. Instead, he went ahead and handed out the list of spies to all those who would help him translate it, and focused on the task at hand: stopping an alien invasion.

That was what counted right now. Not Steve. And the slow anger he felt so clearly emanating from him.

A little later, as Tony was discussing their part of the list with Jen and Jan just before they headed out, he noticed Carol walking up to Steve and starting a conversation with him. Steve’s expression turned sour as soon as she walked up to him, so Tony couldn’t help but listen to their conversation with half an ear while he pointed out a diplomat to Jen and Jan that would not be easy to get to. It was easy to do, because Carol didn’t actually bother to lower the volume of her voice. Tony could hear her perfectly.

“Aren’t you glad you finally talked to Tony?” Carol asked.

“About as happy I can be as I can be, considering the reason we ware talking to each other is an alien invasion,” Steve replied, sounding just as sour as the expression on his face had been.

Tony glanced over to them.  

Carol didn’t even make an attempt at hiding her eye roll, and waved Steve’s complaint aside.

“Go punch some aliens. Maybe it’ll make you less grumpy, old man.”

 “I’ll take that into consideration, Captain,” Steve replied, sounding even more grumpy, if that was even possible.

“That’s not a suggestion, ‘Captain,’” Carol replied. “That’s an order.”

Carol wasn’t wrong, Tony thought. It was time to send the Avengers on their way, get them to do their job.

Just another day saving the Earth.

He turned his attention back to Jen and Jan, and gave them the green light.

*

> **_High Security Facility (Secret Location)_ **
> 
> **_May 26th, 5.30am_ **

 

It was good that they had cooperated and planned everything beforehand, split up the list, and cracked down on the spies all at the same time. As soon as some of the moles realised that something was up, they tried to flee and warn others, and in some cases tried to sic police, military and even other superheroes on them. But the Avengers were faster, this time. They knew where to hit, and they knew who the enemy was. In short order, they had contained a large group of alien spies, and the enormous scale of their operation had become disturbingly clear.

If they hadn’t known, and the invading aliens had managed to blindside them, the Avengers would have been unable to resist. Hell, they had had several spies in the Avengers themselves. There wouldn’t have been Avengers there to resist, probably.

Tony had known something had been wrong ever since their world had been reinstated, but he hadn’t expected the wrong to be on a scale like this.

It was a nightmare come to life. Not one of those where a monster tries to eat you, but one in which by the time you realise, you’ve already slipped halfway down the monster’s throat.

And it had been Jaime that had helped him uncover the true extent of this invasion. Because he had tried to get rid of him. That had been their one mistake.

But Tony still hadn’t found Jaime, and he didn’t know what Jaime was planning to do, and that worried him.

He had faith that the Avengers would round up the remaining invaders and bring them here, but Jaime was an unknown factor in the equation. He might try something. He might, Tony realised now, have gone back to that cold, deserted planet, because looking back, he was positive that the small device that Jaime had dropped at the beach on Fire Island was used to open portals. And it had vanished after Jaime’s disappearance. Which meant that it that in all likeliness, he had used it to open a portal and run while they had been distracted.

As Tony remembered, the portal hadn’t made any noise the first time around too. He could have gone through without any of them realising that until after the fact.

It was entirely possible that Jaime was on that planet now, and that meant that he also had access to the computer system that Tony had discovered on that island.

And that was dangerous. He had seen the computer, and even he could only assume the full extent of its capabilities.

He’d tried to talk to some of the prisoners as they came in, and he’d asked the other Avengers to be on the lookout for alien tech, but it had been in vain so far. The prisoners refused to talk to him, and no tech had been discovered. They had been taught well. He hadn’t told the others about it, but he knew that Earth was by far not the first planet they had conquered, and what they invariably had left behind was nothing but empty desert.

For now, he could only sit and wait, and hope that Jaime would be found eventually.

He was trying to find out just where Jaime had been sent him. If he could somehow reconstruct his jump through space, he could maybe figure out how to get there. But while his computers were working on making sense of the data he had gathered in his broken suit, there was little to go on. It seemed like Jaime’s people had tried to make their home world veritably untraceable.

He refused to accept that.

The door opened, and Steve entered the room Tony and some other Avengers had moved their mission central into, working on the data they had managed to secure so far. Peter and Miles followed at Steve’s heels. They all looked tired but whole, and Miles in particular looked satisfied.

“We’ve finished our list,” he announced proudly when they had come close enough.

Tony smiled.

“A job well done, I see.”

Miles glowed a little at the praise. Well, he probably also glowed a little because he’d been able to work together with (the other) Spider-Man AND Captain America. Any other teenage superhero would be extremely jealous of him when he told them about it.

Unfortunately, that had to wait, Tony thought regretfully. He instead turned towards Steve.

“Have you seen any sign of Jaime?” he asked.

Steve shook his head.

“Nothing so far.”

Looking at him, it was clear that Steve didn’t think that was a good thing, either.

There was no way that Jaime would just disappear, not after all the effort that had been put into the invasion in the first place. There must be something more.  

And then, as if it had been waiting for Tony to think just that, the alarm went off, blaring loudly. Steve and Tony exchanged a glance.

The rest was routine. Tony’s visor went down, and his armour started up. He lifted his arm and reached for Steve, and off they were, flying towards the source of the alarm.

Whatever else might happen, some things never ever stopped feeling natural. Taking Steve on a ride was one of these things.  

*

> **_High Security Facility (Secret Location)_ **
> 
> **_May 26th, 5.30am_ **

 

The situation had already turned nasty by the time they arrived at their destination. Of course the cause of it had been Jaime. Tony had already expected that. And by the looks of it, he had entered the facility with anything but the intention to make friends.

The first thing that greeted them when they arrived at the holding cells where the alarm had originated was gunfire, bullets ricocheting off the walls.

Tony deposited Steve behind a suitable cover, and then rushed in to get to Jaime. It was quite clear what was happening: Jaime had wasted no time to liberate some of his own people, but he hadn’t come too far before he’d been discovered by the guards making the rounds. It had been them who had activated the alarm.

One of the guards had definitely been hit. He was on the floor, blood everywhere. They needed to get him out of there, _now_ , or it would be too late soon.

When Jaime spotted Tony, his face turned into a twisted mask of anger.

“You!” he screamed at Tony. “Why can’t you just stay away! You ruined everything!”

In lieu of answering, Tony aimed his pulsors at Jaime, ready to shoot.

He did not shoot, however.

“Jaime!” Steve called from somewhere behind Tony, his voice loud and authoritative. “You can still stop now! Why do you think you have to do this? We could help you. We can find a solution. Why didn’t you ask for help instead of trying to invade us?”

“Oh, you idiot, you understand absolutely nothing!” Jaime shouted back.

He didn’t try to explain what Steve didn’t understand, though. He lifted his hand, and there it was – that cursed little device, glinting dangerously in the cold light of the cell lighting. The thing that Jaime had already used on him once.

Another portal opened out of thin air.

On the other side of the portal, Tony could see that endless cold sea glittering dangerously, ready to freeze anything it touched. This time, however, the portal wasn’t intended for Tony. It wasn’t Tony that was in danger of getting sucked into the portal. No, it was Steve.

“Oh no,” Tony said, and blasted the device out of Jaime’s hand without a second thought.

Steve was lifted up, and then swung away from the portal.

“We got him!” Miles and Peter shouted in unison, from their places where they were stuck to the ceiling, their arms outstretched as the deposited Steve back on the floor, wrapped in web fluid.

Tony and Jaime both simultaneously lunged for the device, but Tony was faster.

“You tried to kill Steve,” he said, and then he turned and threw the device into the open portal.

“NO!” Jaime shouted, jumping after the device. He missed it. Slipping through his fingers, the device fell right into the portal, and when it was swallowed by it, the portal collapsed into itself with a terrible noise, and then it violently exploded.

Tony was blown against the heavily reinforced wall of the cells violently enough that his display shorted out for a moment. He felt the wall behind him crumble.

He could only hope that everyone else had had enough time to hide and shield themselves from the blast.

When his display came online again, the portal was gone, and so was any trace of Jaime. Only the traces of an explosion remained, leaving the ground scorched and the walls crumbling.

Everything was silent for one moment.

Tony sighed.

“I think I killed the main frame of their computer. Nobody is coming through that or any portal again.”

He’d done it. And Jaime was almost certainly dead. Tony closed his eyes as the scene replayed again in his mind. He had...

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over him.

Tony jerked a little in surprise.

It was Steve, his eyes frosty. He leaned down and pulled Tony out of the rubble, pulling him up and forcing him to stand on his own two legs.

“Take that fucking visor off,” he commanded.

“Naughty, Captain,” Tony said, but he obeyed and lifted it. He wanted to do this face to face.

“Are you aware of what you just did?”

“I am,” Tony replied.

Of course he knew. He always was aware of the choices that he made. It was what he did: consider the possibilities and make the best choice. And just now, he had been forced to make a choice. The best one that he could, in this situation.

“Don’t say it so lightly,” Steve hissed.

“I don’t say that lightly, Steve.” Tony sighed. “He went for you. I had to make a decision.”

Steve’s eyes bored into his, daring him to explain himself.

Tony sighed again.

If only Steve would spare him the interrogation. But he knew that he wouldn't, not now. And Tony could hardly back down now.

“I don’t know what to say, Steve, except that if I have to choose between you and an entire word, I will always choose you. Always.”

That was it, now, the entire ugly truth. He didn’t know what else to say, or how to express what was buried somewhere deep in his heart. It was blunt, and it was what he had always felt.

The choice would always be Steve.

He didn’t want to look at Steve, but then, he had to look at him. He couldn’t _not_ look at Steve.

When he looked, Steve’s face was just as stony, his expression just as unreadable as he had expected.

Why was it always him that ended up breaking things, when he should be building them?

It felt like it was too much. He hadn’t wanted Steve to know. Because it was too much. He knew that.

“You can’t expect me to–“ Steve breathed hard. “I’m not– Tony– “

“I will not apologise.”

Steve sighed deeply.

“You can’t say that I–“

“Goddammit Steve, I can. I’m doing it right now.”

They stared at each other for a long while, neither of them speaking.

Time froze, and everything in Tony twisted in agony. He hated when they were on opposing sides, and he hated when they fought each other, and he hated that they both where so stubborn, but there were things where he couldn't give in, no matter how much Steve wanted him to. No matter how much he loved Steve. 

Then Steve stepped forward, grabbed Tony roughly, and he kissed him.

He did it like it was a battle; intensely and with reckless abandon, crushing Tony against him. Only it didn't hurt, because Tony was still in his suit. And Tony didn't mind, because his mind was occupied with other things.

It was… words failed him. It was the best thing that might have ever happened to Tony.

Oh, yes.

Because this was Steve. Not Captain America; just Steve.

So he kissed back, with all the intensity he could muster himself. Hoping that where words would always fail him, his actions might speak loud enough.

After what seemed like an eternity and yet no time at all, Steve released him, knocking their heads together lightly.

He did not, Tony noticed, let him go.

“You foolish man,” Steve accused him, but for the first time, there was a smile on his face. A smile for him. 

Tony laughed.

“Now _that_ was something I already knew.”

And, just because he was still close enough, he kissed Steve again.


	8. Epilogue

When Tony finally went home (late, late) that night, trying to get some precious moments of sleep before they continued with the clean-up after the attempted invasion, he was greeted by a blinking reminder that a file analysis was still waiting for him, waiting to be completed. He stared at the screen for a moment, at the corrupted file that he had worked on for so long, at the time stamp of its creation. Dated just hours before the last incursion.

A last note just before he died. Tony still didn’t remember, but he knew.

He reached out and typed a command to delete the file without backup. With a last little blink, the file disappeared into nothingness.

Tony sighed.

He didn’t need to read the file.

He knew what had been in there. It only ever could have been one thing at all.

*

When Steve finally went home (late, late) that night, trying to get some precious moments of sleep before they continued with the clean-up after the attempted invasion, he was greeted by the sight of a lonely pillow on a rumpled bed. He stared at the pillow for a moment, and as he did, he thought about love and forgiveness and how these two things were different from each other. He thought about anger and betrayal, too.

Mostly, however, he thought about the fact that he had made a stupid decision today.

Going home alone; that had been a truly stupid decision.

Everything else, all the small things, that could come later. Right this moment, however, he decided that he was not going to go home alone tomorrow.

A single pillow, he felt distinctly, was not enough to share a bed with.

The rest would follow, eventually.


End file.
